Town puts mural into its privates collection

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Mural with a message ... the penis tree is thought to be a political poster.Photo: Reuters

London: At first glance, the Massa Marittima mural looks fairly
similar to dozens of other medieval frescoes in Tuscany.

But look closely at the spidery tree which dominates the centre
of the painting and you notice something peculiar. Its branches are
covered in penises.

There are 25 of them in all, of different shapes and sizes,
complete with testicles.

The mural dates from the 13th century and is still visible on a
wall in the Italian town of Massa Marittima, where it was
discovered during renovation work four years ago.

Until now, it was assumed the phallus tree was a fertility
symbol because it stands by a fountain - the town's main source of
water in medieval times. But according to a British-based expert,
it is a unique piece of political propaganda, commissioned by one
Tuscan faction to sully the reputation of another.

"It's a very clear political poster," said George Ferzoco,
director of the Centre for Tuscan Studies at the University of
Leicester. .

"It's a message from the Guelphs, telling people that if the
Ghibellines are allowed power they will bring with them heresy,
sexual perversion, civic strife and witchcraft."

The Guelphs and Ghibellines were two factions who fought for
power in Tuscany and northern Italy during the Middle Ages.

At the time the mural was painted, the Guelphs controlled Massa
Marittima, a small town in north-western Tuscany.

"They presented themselves as the clean-living, upstanding party
in Tuscan politics and it was traditional for them, in launching
their attacks on the Ghibellines, to label them as heretics,"
Professor Ferzoco said.

"Heretics, according to people in the Middle Ages, practised
sodomy. Hence the phallus tree."

It may seem a cryptic message to the modern mind but Professor
Ferzoco says it would have been obvious to the average medieval
Tuscan.

"They considered things we consider obscene to be perfectly
normal, and using a phallus as part of a political message would
not have been an issue."